WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is claiming that some of his predecessor’s eleventh-hour pardons, including those who served on the committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, are invalid because former President Joe Biden supposedly did not physically sign them himself.
Trump's assertion comes despite a memorandum from the Justice Department published two decades ago declaring that the president does not need to personally signs bills.
“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post just after midnight Monday.
“In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!” Trump added without evidence.
The president’s post came after he raised the topic with reporters traveling back to Washington with him on Air Force One on Sunday evening, saying the U.S. “had an autopen for a president” during Biden’s time in office.
Asked by reporters whether his claim meant he believes his predecessor’s actions in the White House are null, Trump gave a softer response.
“I think so. It's not my decision. That'll be up to a court,” he said. “But I would say that they're null, because I'm sure Biden didn't have any idea that it was taking place.”
Just before leaving office, Biden issued a statement defending the pardons, saying, "alarmingly, public servants have been subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties. In certain cases, some have even been threatened with criminal prosecutions."
"The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense," he added.
The 2005 memorandum from the Justice Department talks about signatures on legislation but specifically cites an autopen as a method for adding signage.
“The president need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law,” it reads. “Rather, the President may sign a bill within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 by directing a subordinate to affix the President’s signature to such a bill, for example by autopen.”
In his Truth Social post later, Trump went on to issue a warning specifically to those who served on the Jan. 6 committee and received a pardon from Biden, writing they should be aware that they are “subject to investigation at the highest level.”
The comment, perhaps signaling the president intends to pursue action against members, follows Speaker Mike Johnson in January declaring that House Republicans will seek to investigate the now-disbanded committee.
In his final hours in office, Biden pardoned members of his family and others who have been at points in Trump's crosshairs, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, including former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
It was not said at the time how they were signed.
The U.S. has a long history of president’s exercising their pardon authority — a broad power explicitly given to U.S. commanders in chief in the Constitution that can be applied to federal crimes, except in the case of impeachments.
Trump issued a flurry — 74 pardons and 70 commutations respectively — in the hours before leaving office in his first term and has already used the authority in his second stint in the White House to pardon or commute the sentences of more than 1,500 people convicted of or charged with crimes for actions around the Capitol on Jan. 6.
In one of the most notable pardons in recent history, Biden, before leaving office, issued a sweeping one for his son Hunter.
